How to start

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summalovaable
summalovaable Posts: 287 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
My aunt (who is severly obese) asked me the other day what I do to be healthy, but I realized what I've done as an 18 year old whose been focused on weight training, cardio and proper eating for most of her life.. my advice would be pretty irrelevant. I wouldn't want to "scare" her out of losing weight or intimidate or discourage her with one of my workouts

So, my question is: Where do I advise her to start? Or more importantly, how did YOU start? Any input would be greatly appreciated!

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  • Kirsty_UK
    Kirsty_UK Posts: 964 Member
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    It depends on how much time and energy she has. If she wants to use mfp, that's a great place to start. Start with tracking what she eats, and learning what a normal calorie intake is, then go from there.

    Without mfp, I'd suggest this
    - start small, introducing bits of exercise, like stairs instead of the lift or escalator
    - same with food, look at swapping foods with healthier options

    I think the biggest impact for me personally though has been calorie counting - knowing now how many calories is in something (roughly), what proportion of my days intake that is, and how much exercise it takes to burn that off!

    Beyond that, I'd help her look at her diet, what her "problem moments" are - is it late night snacking? is it that she doesn't know how to cook a healthy meal? is it that she tries to resist all treats and then binges? each of those is tackled in different ways
  • witchy_wife
    witchy_wife Posts: 792 Member
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    Some great replies above. For someone who is not used to dieting it's best to start small. Writing down what she eats will be great as some people honestly do not know what things are healthy and what are not. My grandad when he was alive was diabetic and would say that he was being good because he just had a few jam (jelly in USA) sandwich for lunch. And no it wasn't the special sugar free jam, it was regular stuff.

    So sometimes just educating people on what is good for them and what isn't (and helping with swicthing to healthier options for things that aren't good for them) can be a great start.
  • HMonsterX
    HMonsterX Posts: 3,000 Member
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    Two things i tell anyone who asks how i did it...

    1) Know what's in your food, calorie wise. Log what you eat, find out your BMR/Maintenance and it's a real eye-opener.

    2) Think of those calories as your currency. You have that many to spend a day. If you want to spend 400 on that bit of cheesecake, go ahead! Just remember that's 400 you can't have later on! That way, you don't deny anything, but it makes you really appreciate the treats a lot more!
  • alliefairy
    alliefairy Posts: 8 Member
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    I started with walking for 20 minutes 3x a week. Eventually I started walking longer, walking more often, and adding running intervals to my walks.

    I also like to look at how many fruits and veggies I eat in a day and try to eat 2 servings of fruit and 3 or more servings of veggies.
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
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    Definitely encourage her to start small. A friend of mine who, like you has always been at a fairly normal weight and fit, tried to help a severely obese friend of hers and it totally failed. My friend is an all or nothing type who can easily do things like cut out sugar or eat clean but when her friend tried that same approach it was way too much.

    I'd definitely encourage her to join MFP or at least start writing down what she eats and what she does for activity. Journalling is a great way to become accountable for what you're eating and what your doing. The next step would be to assign values to those foods and activities (otherwise it's hard to know whether or not your staying with in limits or under/over eating). That's going to be tough to do without a program like MFP or even Weight Watchers but maybe she could at least check labels and jot down calories. Once that becomes a habit, encourage her to move more. At first she can do those simple things like parking farther away or taking the stairs more or walking around her office a couple times a day for 5-10 minutes. Eventually she's going to have to do more though - encourage her to try the Walk Away the Pounds DVD program. Fun but easy and will help her become more active. Or maybe walk around the mall a few times a week - whatever is available in her area.'

    ETA: Eventually she can change her goals as she pleases - eat cleaner, cut down on carbs or sugar or fats (whatever the issue is), eat more fruits/veggies, join a gym, etc etc.

    Best of luck!!

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